I looked down at my hand and it was shaking pretty violently: Andy Murray reveals how nerves nearly cost him his Wimbledon title

Andy Murray has revealed how close he came to losing the Wimbledon men's final after suffering “violent shaking” as he served for the match.

The tennis star said he had always suffered from mouth ulcers and heaviness in his legs brought on by the stress of the tournament. But during this year’s final against Novak Djokovic, as he attempted to become the first British man to win the tournament for 77 years, he was almost overcome by nerves.

“I knew I had a great chance of winning the final. It was OK until the last 30 minutes before the match and then the nerves hit me,” he said.

Then as he attempted to serve out for victory, he recalled: “I looked down at my left hand. For the first time, I could remember in the middle of a tennis match, it was shaking. Shaking pretty violently. I was in the midst of what would become the single game that would change everything in my life ... I had had three match points already, three chances to win the men’s singles title, and Novak Djokovic, the world No 1 and a great champion, had so far resisted each time.”

In an extract from his new book, Andy Murray: Seventy-Seven: My Road to Wimbledon Glory, released this week, he said: “I suppose it showed how much it meant, but it was something that caught me by surprise.”

Murray admitted that the moments after his victory were “one big blur”, adding: “Wimbledon was for everyone. It was for my team, the media, the crowd, huge TV audience. That moment was chaotic.”